56 Melete
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| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by: | Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt |
| Discovery date: | September 9, 1857 |
| Alternative names: | |
| Minor planet category: | Main belt |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5) | |
| Aphelion distance: | 480.683 Gm (3.213 AU) |
| Perihelion distance: | 295.717 Gm (1.977 AU) |
| Semi-major axis: | 388.200 Gm (2.595 AU) |
| Eccentricity: | 0.238 |
| Orbital period: | 1526.839 d (4.18 a) |
| Avg. orbital speed: | 18.22 km/s |
| Mean anomaly: | 267.781° |
| Inclination: | 8.072° |
| Longitude of ascending node: | 193.478° |
| Argument of perihelion: | 103.648° |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions: | 113.2 km |
| Mass: | 1.5×1018 kg |
| Mean density: | ? g/cm³ |
| Equatorial surface gravity: | 0.0316 m/s² |
| Escape velocity: | 0.0598 km/s |
| Rotation period: | ? d |
| Albedo: | 0.065 [1] |
| Temperature: | ~173 K |
| Spectral type: | l |
| Absolute magnitude: | 8.31 |
56 Melete (mel'-i-tee) is a large and dark main belt asteroid. It is a rather unusual class P asteroid, composition is probably organic rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, with possible internal water ice. It was discovered by H. Goldschmidt on September 9, 1857 and was named after Melete, the Muse of meditation in Greek mythology. So far two stellar occultations by Melete have been observed successfully (in 1997 and again in 2002).
[edit] Aspects
| Stationary, retrograde |
Opposition | Distance to Earth (AU) |
Maximum brightness (mag) |
Stationary, prograde |
Conjunction to Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 June 2005 | 25 November 2005 | 2.23823 | 12.9 | 21 January 2006 | 15 March 2006 |
| 29 August 2006 | 25 February 2007 | 1.50914 | 11.4 | 10 April 2007 | 28 May 2007 |
| 9 January 2008 | 1 September 2008 | 1.42129 | 11.2 | 17 October 2008 | 30 November 2008 |
| 3 June 2009 | 13 November 2009 | 2.23102 | 12.9 | 8 January 2010 | 3 March 2010 |
| 14 August 2010 | 1 February 2011 | 1.74102 | 11.9 | 21 March 2011 | 10 May 2011 |
| 29 November 2011 | 6 August 2012 | 1.17361 | 10.6 | 18 September 2012 | 24 October 2012 |
| 17 May 2013 | 1 November 2013 | 2.17436 | 12.8 | 27 December 2013 | 19 February 2014 |
| 1 August 2014 | 12 January 2015 | 1.93490 | 12.3 | 4 March 2015 | 24 April 2015 |
| 29 October 2015 | 29 June 2016 | 1.00816 | 10.4 | 8 August 2016 | 10 September 2016 |
| 27 April 2017 | 20 October 2017 | 2.06800 | 12.6 | 14 December 2017 | 5 February 2018 |
| 18 July 2018 | 26 December 2018 | 2.08313 | 12.6 | 18 February 2019 | 11 April 2019 |
| 6 October 2019 | 14 May 2020 | 1.03003 | 10.5 | 21 June 2020 | 29 July 2020 |
[edit] References
| Minor planets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous minor planet | 56 Melete | Next minor planet |
| List of asteroids | ||
Vulcanoids · Near-Earth asteroids · Main belt · Jupiter Trojans · Centaurs · Damocloids · Comets · Trans-Neptunians (Kuiper belt • Scattered disc • Oort cloud)
For other objects and regions, see Asteroid groups and families, Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar System.
For a complete listing, see List of asteroids. See also Pronunciation of asteroid names and Meanings of asteroid names.
